Abstract This work presents a broadband two-stage pseudo-differential low-noise amplifier (LNA) fabricated in an advanced 130-nm SiGe BiCMOS technology with ft fₜ f t / fmax f₌₀ₗ f m a x of 470/650 GHz. The design combines Electromagnetic (EM) -based device co-simulations with novel broadband transformer matching networks. The input transformer employs asymmetric broadside-coupled lines to achieve wideband impedance transformation with insertion losses below 2 dB. The novel interstage and output transformers are designed as tapered asymmetric broadside coupled lines, providing a distributed transformation with a high impedance transformation ratio of 5: 1 and 4: 1, respectively, over a bandwidth (BW) of 100 GHz. The LNA provides a peak small-signal gain of 11. 8 dB at 295 GHz with a 111 GHz 3-dB bandwidth spanning 211–322 GHz. The simulated noise figure is between 9. 7 dB at 226 GHz and 14 dB at 330 GHz. The LNA has a saturated output power of 4. 65 dBm at 280 GHz and an OP 1 dB OP₁₃₁ O P 1 d B of 3. 6 dBm, including balun losses and consumes 118 mW DC power. It has a measured group delay (GD) variation of plus or minus 3. 8 3. 8 ± 3. 8 ps, making it suitable for broadband wireless communication.
Prabhu et al. (Tue,) studied this question.